Full Review by Red Herring
Scoring:
Well, what have we here for me today, hm? A promotion forum, is it? "Promotion Box", you say? This reminds me of a funny story, actually. You see, a few years back, I was actually going to start a promotion website of my own called "Promotion Box", as it fit in the with the cardboard and box themed network I wanted to create. I ended up scrapping the entire idea in the end, however, as I simply didn't sit right with a "cardboard" theme. Still, given that little bit of history, I am already feeling a sense of kinship with this "Promotion Box." I am quite hopeful that it will not disappoint me.
The history of promotion forums did not precisely begin with Forum Promotion, as many may believe. There were a great variety of similar-themed websites in the past. Webmaster forums were a genre that had been already popularized long before Forum Promotion sprang up and there were many that already held the promotion-based undertones to them. Digital Point, for example, is a very fine illustration of this. However, Forum Promotion would most certainly have to have been the forum that revolutionized the promotion genre, directly leading to the creation of numerous clones and remixes of the concept: free forum advertising and forum-based services for all members of its community.
The primary issue with promotion forums is that the concept appears to be difficult for individuals to "remaster." Unlike other genres that can focus on a wide variety of broad or specific subjects within their niche, promotion forums have only one thing they can really focus on: promotion. Free promotion. And when you're offering services for free, there aren't a whole lot of options for advertising you can provide your community with. Thus, it has always been an abnormally difficult task to create a truly unique promotion forum with unique services, unique content and unique discussion.
Unfortunate as this may be, this is also what I look for when I review a promotion forum: services and content that sets it apart from Forum Promotion and all of its ill-begotten clones. Whatever perfection it may have in aesthetics, if it cannot set itself apart from its kindred, then it's little more than a generic clone. And while some may be satisfied with a clone, it is nonetheless guaranteed to never outgrow Forum Promotion's shadow. So with that in mind, is "Promotion Box" able to step up and offer a unique palette of content and services to the promotion community? My exposition grows much too long whilst our time grows ever shorter. So without further ado, let's find out.
First Impressions & Appearance – (10 out of 20)
Well, let's find out after we tackle the aesthetic elements anyway. Ta ha. We'll get to the more important aspects later. We cannot simply skip out on the aesthetic side of things. Even with the proper functionality in place, a forum without the design to back it up is going to suffer dearly. And when it comes to the first impressions of a website, a book will always be judged by its cover. So that book had best have a pretty gosh-darned good cover. So let's see just how pretty this little box of promotion is, shall we?
As always, we shall begin with the header and work our way down. Promotion Box's header greets me with a standard sandwich-styled design: two utility bars that serve as the "bread" with the main header content itself sandwiched right in the middle. I have always greatly appreciated this kind of design, as not only does it present excellent potential for aesthetic quality, but it also allows for a larger quantity of technical and utility-based functions that should be found in a header, which is always incredibly useful for a content heavy website, such as a promotion forum. The actual design elements for this sandwich-based design keep things simple, but effect. The utility/navigation bars consist of a light black while the main header uses a deep light blue, with all three elements topped off with a light pleasant gradient to give them that all-important modern feel.
But what about the actual content within this header? Any self-respecting website with a header should have a logo, after all, and Promotion Box is no different. At the current moment, however, Promotion Box's own logo is currently in holiday mode, thus I will have to critique it as such. If the signature banner is any indication of the standard logo, however, I am confident that I would have been quite satisfied. Anyway, the current festive logo makes use of quite a bit of Christmas imagery: snow that makes up the bottom portion of the logo, a snowman, a Christmas tree, a candy cane and even old Kris Kringle himself. All of this is used to compliment and accentuated the logo's text: "Promotion Box", "out of the box promotion", text that stands bold with a mix of white and yellow coloring. For a simple holiday logo, this one certainly goes above and beyond the call of duty. Indeed, I don't believe anyone would find themselves displeased with it in any way, and I find it to be a very pleasant little design. What I am disappointed with, however, is that out of all the many images used to make this festive logo design, not
one of those Christmas images in any way to "Promotion Box" itself, which is quite a shame, because there's one image associated Christmas that would have perfectly fit in with the whole "box" theme.
"Gift boxes, anyone? Anyone? No? Bah."
There's one last complaint that I offer towards the logo in that while the snow is quite nice festive little touch, it cuts off really abruptly in the header at the bottom, leaving a rather unattractive gab between the utility bar and the header. I feel as though the CSS for the logo should temporarily be edited so that it connects with the bottom utility bar or the bottom of the logo should be smoothed out much more.
"This bothers me way more than it should."
Well anyway, I believe I've dwelt on the logo for long enough and since we're on the topic, let's take a look at those navigation and utility bars. I've already expressed my approval of the base color and gradient, so let's scrutinize the more minor details. The top utility bar, which primarily features the navigational elements has little in the way of design for its text, text which consists of a dull greyish color that blends in a bit too much with the utility bar. Hovering over any linked text merely makes it slightly more visible. This is a rather minor complaint, but a website's primary navigational elements are quite important and should stand out a little more. Especially when the elements in the utility bar stand out more than the navigational elements do. Indeed, the bottom utility bar, which consists of mechanics involving forum functionality and UCP options, have a bright blue CSS highlight when hovering over any of its elements. It almost seems as though these utility bars should be switched.
But I digress. I may have done a lot of nitpicking, but I actually find myself fairly satisfied with the header. It's not particularly fancy, but it manages to feel like it and is overall quite pleasant to look at despite some gaping flaws. So let's move on to the index.
Indeed. What does the index have to offer my palette, I wonder? The header had a few hiccups, but it was a tasty meal indeed. Can the index top it? Well, for starters, it begins with the page title and associated description, if applicable, followed by its Bubble Advertising, the index proper, Table Advertisements and finally, the footer. Lastly, off to the side, we have Xenforo's stock sideboxes feature.
Well, quite a bit to tackle here. I'll start with the actual index. Forum design consists of a grey-toned category header with just the slightest touch of purple mixed in and a very subtle gradient. Forum design is mostly devoid of table separators, an aspect I always find myself appreciative of, but otherwise mostly uses stock Xenforo design with a color mix of white and sky blue, the latter applied to latest post information. Forums are all equipped with a custom PB box icon which is pleasant and contains a satisfactory level of ingenuity. Finally, each forum use a very pronounced gradient extending from its separator. Perhaps a bit too pronounced, as it does stand out a little more than it should. Nonetheless, it's a nice touch.
If there is any criticism I must offer towards the forum design, however, it's in regards to an element included only in the service forums.
"I hope I made it obvious enough."
In the event that the two red and orange circles did not tip anyone off, I am referring to that gigantic green "Request Now!" button. Now, don't get me wrong here. I highly appreciate that an attempt has been made to include an element like this; one that offers more ease-of-use towards those attempting to make use of the services the forum provides. However, it's really quite a large button, almost offensively large. They could very well do to be reduced in size. Secondly, these buttons seem to be almost completely useless. The buttons for "Posting Service" and "Review Service" simply lead to both of their forums. Which is something that forum titles, you know...do already. The rest of these buttons redirect to creating a thread within their respective forums. All well and good, but those that are not familiar with the services or the way promotion forums work will only be confused. Instead, perhaps these buttons could redirect to the guidelines which have buttons that redirect to creating a thread within their respective forum? For example:
"Just a thought."
Well, moving on to the...footer! Excellent. Any and every good website needs a decent footer, in my honest opinion. It's simply too useful and functional to sacrifice, and it serves to create a much more balanced page structure as well as add some professionalism to a website. Sadly, my eyes do not feel quite ecstatic with the footer presented to me by Promotion Box. Its contents consist of the blue gradient background found in the header accompanied by an aspect I highly disapprove of: hideous white boxes. They take of the entire footer and manage to blend quite poor with the background. To further deepen the needle, one of these boxes is completely functionless (Advertising) while another (Sponsored By...) is slightly large than all the other three, which makes things rather jarring. I must question as to whether or not these boxes serve any point whatsoever anyway, because what the actual forums and their descriptions are for. Quite a disappointing footer.
Ah well. There's one more aspect that I want to tackle before I wrap this section up: the side-boxes. Honestly, I am coming from a bit of a biased standpoint here, as I quite loathe side-boxes. Secondly, I realize that one might not be able to fix this aspect so easily considering it's an included "feature" of Xenforo. I still feel they're worth mentioning, however, and must state my disapproval of them. Not only are they completely unattractive, they're also completely useless. They're unattractive because there's a great big wide white gap beneath them, the social networking box looks absolutely abysmal in structure and imbalance. And they're useless because everything they cover can easily be covered in header and footer elements in a much more efficient fashion. I understand if Promotion Box does not want to be rid of them, but they still strike a rather sour chord with me.
Well, I believe that's just about all I really wanted to mention with Promotion Box's design. The design elements themselves certainly aren't as bad as I made it sound at times. All-in-all, my eyes are pretty satisfied here and I'd say everything is generally solid. So why do I give it only a 10/20? Well, one reason is because there were several little hiccups throughout the design that I generally found to be pleasant, but that's not the primary reason. The primary reason is something that ties more into Site Layout than it does with aesthetics. So we'll leave things on that note and proceed to the next section for round two. See you there.
Site Layout – (8 out of 20)
Welcome to next section, Site Layout! Which also happens to be round two to of the "First Impressions & Appearance" section! But before I ring the bell and start tearing away at things, we'll take a look at other important aspects, such as index layout and forum functionality. Both are quite important elements, after all, and we can't be shirking them. We'll get to the main event after we've covered those essentials. So let's begin, shall we? There's one thing I'd like to do first, though.
"Begone, spawn of Satan!"
Certainly not the fault of Promotion Box, mind you. However, if there's one feature about Xenforo that I utterly despise in every possible way, it's the automatic watch / e-mail function being set to default on registration. Dear. GOD. I don't want my bloody inbox spammed to the nine hells each time a user posts just because I had the
gall to respond to a thread. As if my inbox doesn't already receive enough pointless notifications and spam! Whichever developer at Xenforo believed this to be a good idea, I would like to have you disemboweled by creatures of the abyss. Thank you. Moving on.
Now, with that one little irritating feature out of the way, everything should be as smooth as gravy and Promotion Box functionality should be stock Xenforo functionality. I certainly haven't seen any revolutions of mechanics on my exploration of Promotion Box. And that makes the status quo satisfactory. If there's one thing that Xenforo succeeds in, it's sheer functionality and there's very little need to change that. There is one little bit of criticism I might offer, however, and it's again a fault of Xenforo's as opposed to Promotion Box's. However, the point stands in that I'm disappointed in the lacking of a dedicated staff list, something I feel is important in a promotion forum, as it shows everyone that will be servicing the members of the community. It's also an easy way for leaders and administrators to check on all members of the staff team to ensure they're performing their duties properly. It's an element of coordination that's quite important for a promotion forum, and it would be pleasant to see such a page added.
That aside, there's nothing absolutely nothing wrong with mechanics or functionality. At least, nothing on Promotion Box's end.
So let's move on and tackle forum layout, shall we? Honestly, I am severely disappointed in these regards, but not for reasons of practicality, more-so of actual content. But we'll get to that later. Promotion Box's forum index consists of five categories: "Info Centre", your standard forum information/announcements hub. "Services", a grand list of all staff-managed services Promotion Box provides. "Promotion Tools", standard user-exchange based forums. "Webmaster", all things pertaining to webmaster-related discussion. And finally, "The Parlor", all off-topic/general related posts unrelated to the promotion-based content. Technically speaking, it's a pretty solid lineup...a tried-and-true tested layout. It certainly works for another certain promotion forum, eh?
Nonetheless, for a promotion forum, it's a solid lineup, one that shouldn't confuse any potential community members. Or at least, not ones familiar with the promotion genre anyway. I'll speak more about why I'm disappointed with it in the "Content" section of this review. For now, it's time to continue what I started in "First Impressions & Appearance."
Aesthetics Critique: Round 2. DING!
So I mentioned in "First Impressions & Appearance" that I was generally satisfied with the design, and in this section, "Site Layout", I also said that I was satisfied with functionality and believed the layout to be solid enough. So why is it that I gave them both pretty mediocre scores? After all, if I'm fairly satisfied with the elements of both, they should have a score that represents them in a positive fashion, right?
The reason is because while the design elements, functionality and forum layout all may be generally solid,
the structure that ties them all together simply is not. To further elaborate on this, let's revisit some of what I mentioned in previous sections.
Red Herring said:
"...The top utility bar, which primarily features the navigational elements has little in the way of design for its text, text which consists of a dull greyish color that blends in a bit too much with the utility bar. Hovering over any linked text merely makes it slightly more visible. This is a rather minor complaint, but a website's primary navigational elements are quite important and should stand out a little more..."
"Sadly, my eyes do not feel quite ecstatic with the footer presented to me by Promotion Box. Its contents consist of the blue gradient background found in the header accompanied by an aspect I highly disapprove of: hideous white boxes."
"...the side-boxes. ... ... ... ... ... I still feel they're worth mentioning, however, and must state my disapproval of them. Not only are they completely unattractive, they're also completely useless. They're unattractive because there's a great big wide white gap beneath them, the social networking box looks absolutely abysmal in structure and imbalance..."
"I am referring to that gigantic green "Request Now!" button. ... ... ... ... ... However, it's really quite a large button, almost offensively large. They could very well do to be reduced in size. Secondly, these buttons seem to be almost completely useless. The buttons for "Posting Service" and "Review Service" simply lead to both of their forums. Which is something that forum titles, you know...do already."
Combine all of these, and what do you get? Hm. Trying to think of a good metaphor, here. Ah! Actually, I know exactly what it reminds me of.
"Like a bad game of Tetris!"
Alright, that's probably a bit of an overstatement. Sadly, however, it's not too far off. There are so many inconsistent elements, design hiccups and index imbalance that the layout really does remind me of a bad game of Tetris. Again, it's not that the layout is particularly difficult to maneuver, especially not for those familiar with the promotion genre, but it really feels like it. There are so many boxes everywhere, all of them serving absolutely no point and just creating a really chaotic layout design. "Organized chaos", sure, but chaos nonetheless, and it's really unappetizing to look at all of these random cluttered elements scattered about the screen. Seems a bit redundant to have green boxes in the forum description and white boxes in the footer that all do exactly what the forum titles already accomplish - taking the user to that forum. Then there's the side boxes that push the entire index over in a jarring unattractive fashion and leave a huge wide gap beneath them. Again, I realize this is a fault that lies more with Xenforo than Promotion Box, but it's still a very poignant one.
Boxes. Boxes everywhere. Boxes to the side. Boxes in the forum description. Boxes on each end of the forum index. Boxes in the footer. Even a box in the header, if we're being technical. The website even has a box in its name. I believe my comparison with Tetris might've been a little too fitting. I really mean no offense, but I honestly must point out just how obnoxiously cluttered that Promotion Box really is. Even if, in the end, it doesn't serve to be that confusing to the community. Even if, in the end, the layout is still very much navigable. In the end, the fact remains that it's a bit of chaotic mess of clutter and boxes. And that shall be all for this section.
Statistics and Activity – (13 out of 20)
Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo. Envision that little string of "hoo's" as a very strange diabolical laugh. I'm always eager to write the Statistics and Activity section. Partly because it's a nice "breather" section and generally easy to write for. Partly because it marks the halfway point for the review. And partly because it's the hard parts are out of the way and it's all downhill from here. But I digress. You could say there's something of a love-hate relationship between statistics and activity and promotion forums. Many webmasters get it into their head that starting a promotion forum equals easy activity, once they've seen Forum Promotion's success. After all, who doesn't love free advertising, right? Of course, it always turns out that it's just as difficult as just about any other forum genre to gather a community for, and
much harder to gather a dedicated staff roster for. Due to this unfortunate fact, many webmasters close down their promotion forums fairly early, with a lifespan of 6+ months being quite rare.
On first glance, Promotion Box seems to be one of those lucky few that breaks that tradition. Promotion Box saw its life begin on April 3rd, 2011. Since its conception, it has garnered a grand total of
7154 members, 5994 threads, and 61653 total messages.
My oh my. Those are impressive statistics even without such a high member count. I consider a forum that has achieved a total of 10000 - 15000 posts on its first year and 30000 - 50000 posts by its second year to have achieved reasonably decent statistics, and Promotion Box has certainly surpassed that. However, those statistics are also accompanied by an whopping impressive 7000+ member count, more than a third of Forum Promotion's own member base, which would normally be a huge achievement.
However, why is it that Forum Promotion has over 1,000,000 posts while Promotion Box has only 60,000? Because, sadly, the statistics are not as well-off as they appear to be. For one, over 7000 of those 60000 posts belong to the original owner, Sylar, himself, which takes a pretty good chunk out of overall statistics. Furthermore, personally browsing through the actual member list reveals an unfortunate truth: the vast majority of those 7000+ members are spam bots or general spammers that simply either never managed to get to the actual spamming process or had all of their posts removed. Either way, it's pretty easy to recognize the fact, with many members using such names a "#FNAME#qb2cy", "#ge32nnir453dfcdkfgfgs", or "abdulrehyt."
Also, from my understanding, Promotion Box has recently been reopened, and it shows. Now, I certainly wouldn't say that Promotion Box is currently "dead". It's possible that it might be "dying." If anything, however, "struggling" definitely suits it best. It's trying very hard to get back on its feet, and it's making a valiant effort at it. Only time will tell if it succeeds. But for the moment, activity is very much scarce.
Still, while the statistics may not be impressive as they appear to be, they certainly do appear to be quite impressive. And even with the detriments to activity, the fact that 60000 posts within two years is a very respectable amount remains unchanged. So generally, pretty well done here. It's unfortunate that my score must be docked a bit, but I find myself quite satisfied with statistics. The only thing that Promotion Box really needs here is to stand back on its own two feet after being on the ground for so long.
Content – (4 out of 20)
Well, the black sheep had to rear its ugly head eventually, and what an ugly head it is. Content is, by far, the most important element when it comes to a promotion forum. Without suitable unique or quality content being offered, then it's little more than a generic clone with hardly anything going for it. Sadly, this is about all Promotion Box really is: a generic clone.
To iterate, it's not that Promotion Box is necessarily lacking in content per se. It contains just about all the services and discussion forums one would expect from a promotion forum: from packages, to reviews, to general index advertising and your auction house, it more or less covers all of the essentials. The issue therein lies not with the quantity of content being offered, but with the quality of the content as well as the fact that Promotion Box brings absolutely nothing new to the table.
Forum Promotion
+Site Information [Hub]
-News Center [Announcements]
-Community Matters [Feedback]
-New to FP? [Introductions]
+Advertising & Services [Service List]
-Promotion Directory [Ad Directory]
-Posting Packages [Package Services]
-Review HQ [Review Services]
-Signature Advertising [Signature Ad Service]
-Text Advertising [Index Ads]
-Featured Site [Thread Ads]
-Social Ads [Social Networking]
-Auction House [Auction Service]
+Member to Member [Member Exchange Forums]
-Exchange Central [Service Exchanges]
-Graphics Sales & Database [Graphics Resource Database]
-Marketplace [Rea Life Currency]
-Job Center [Staff Recruitment]
-What Is Going On? [Personal Website News]
-Site Battles [Site Battles]
+Managing Online Forums & Websites [Webmaster Discussion]
-Managing & Monetizing Your Site [General Webmaster Discussion]
-Search Engine Optimization [SEO Discussion]
-Technical Support [Community Tech Support]
-Graphic Design & Webmaster Forum [Graphics Discussion/Tutorials]
+Non-Promotion [Off-Topic]
-Intellectual Talk [General Off-Topic]
-Computers & Internet [Tech Discussion]
-Media Discussions [Entertainment Discussion]
-Sporting Discussion [Sports Discussion]
Promotion Box
+Info Centre [Hub]
-Announcements and Updates [Announcements]
-Community Room [Feedback]
-Newbie's Corner [Introductions]
+Services [Service List]
-Boxed Promotion [Ad Directory]
-Posting Service [Package Services]
-Review Service [Review Services]
-Bubble Ads [Index Ads]
-Banner Ads [Index Ads]
-Table Ads [Index Ads]
-Bundle Service [Auction Service]
+Member to Member [Member Exchange Forums]
-The Trading Post [Service Exchanges]
-Marketplace [Real Life Currency]
-Job Pages [Staff Recruitment]
-What Is Going On? [Personal Website News]
+Webmaster [Webmaster Discussion]
-General Webmaster [General Webmaster Discussion]
-Staff and Members [Community-Related Discussion]
-Graphics and Web Design/Development [Graphics Discussion/Tutorials]
-Revenue And Hosting [Monetization]
-Social Networking, SEO, & Promotion [SEO Discussion]
+The Parlor [Off-Topic]
-General Hubbub [General Off-Topic]
-Media Zone [Entertainment Discussion]
-Technology Bytes [Tech Discussion]
There's really not a whole lot of deviation from the norm here, hm? The forums and services themselves are ever-so-slightly remixed, but the categories are all the same, and more or less follow the same exact formula. I am not condemning this type of approach, mind you. Don't fix what isn't broken, right? If the formula has been proven to work, then it doesn't really hurt to use it. Nonetheless, I am still disappointed in the lack of innovation here. The only services that could be called "unique" are ones that Forum Promotion has already had in the past or ones that dozens of other promotion forums have already made use of.
A promotion forum does not necessarily need unique services to be decent, however. The genre has always been a very difficult one to conceptualize unique content for, as the options are always quite limited. So when innovation for content fails you, what do you do? Simple. You instead pursue the quality of content. A standard of quality will never fail you, so long as you are willing to put in the effort to maintain it.
Sadly, I'm not really feeling an effort of quality standard around Promotion Box either. The request buttons on the index had some potential for easier service requests
(which would have slightly added to quality), but they made a 180 in the wrong direction and are currently quite useless. The actual services themselves fair little better. If they're not simply performing the bare essentials of their purpose, they're simply slight remixes of Forum Promotion's own services. The resident Package service is a good example of the latter.
However, the most glaring example in lack of quality control would have to be the Review Service. I really mean no offense to the Promotion Box staff and their review team by saying this, but...the reviews service is honestly a bit pitiful. Again, I am trying to just be blunt, not offensive. These are my honest thoughts here.
"I'm ignoring the broken BBCodes. I realize they're just a slight technical difficulty."
Each section within this review is merely three or four sentences long. There's nothing wrong with being concise. I could certainly take a few lessons in being concise given how long this review has turned out, but surely a larger effort could be made than that, yes? The review service is not an ego-booster, it exists primarily to offer constructive critique and suggestions for improvement. While I can't say that critique is completely devoid in these reviews, they're kind of cutting it to the bare minimum, no? If a user genuinely wants detailed constructive feedback on their website or forum, then they'll probably end up somewhat disappointed here. Again, no offense, but I feel this should really be addressed.
So to recap here, Promotion Box is a promotion forum that lacks a unique layout, followed by a lack of unique content complimented by a lack of content quality. The former would not be so bad if it made up for it in sheer quality, but sadly it does not. If Promotion Box ever wants to stand higher than its predecessors, then it will need to alleviate this immediately.
Not only does is the quality and unique variety of content severely lacking, but aside from the aesthetics and forum software, Promotion Box seems to be little more than a cardboard cutout of Forum Promotion. Let's take a look at a forum index comparison, for instance. Quality standard should be given first priority, but in terms of unique content, I might be able to offer two cents. I've always wanted to see a website that was a full-on hybrid between the promotion and website genres. It would be the best of both worlds if merged properly, with the webmaster side of things offering wisdom and resources while the promotion side compliments it with services and webmaster exchanges. It would be a beautiful relationship. I, for one, would personally really like to see a promotion forum that offers a database of tutorials for various softwares or design coding (CSS/HTML/etc). I've not found one promotion forum that has sought to do something like that. But those are just my two cents. Still, some innovation definitely couldn't hurt for Promotion Box.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (11 out of 20)
I'm going to keep this last section short, because I've covered all that I've deemed to be important and I'm quite eager to wrap this review up. It's gone on for quite long enough, I believe. So. Spelling & Grammar, as well as professionalism. Certainly far from being as important as Content or Layout for a promotion forum, but it's not a section we should simply ignore. So, hop to it we shall.
And, much like content, I find myself fairly dissatisfied here. However, that's nothing new, and certainly not a trait unique to Promotion Box. It's just another forum in a very long line of forums that have found me wanting for this section. I say that as though spelling errors are rampant, but no, it's nothing like that. Everything is grammatically sound and there is not a spelling error in sight. The writing is simply dull and colorless, especially on the index. As I mentioned in
CMT Sports Forum's review, a forum description should compliment the title of a forum, not simply state the obvious. It does not need to be particularly witty or charming, although it's certainly a plus if it can be, but rather it should enforce a bit of inspiration on the community as opposed to simply stating "This is where you discuss X. Blub." Nothing inherently wrong with doing so, it's just...dull...uninspiring...uncreative, if you will.
Regarding staff professionalism, the new staff roster seems to be a bit too new for me to judge properly, but as of yet, I see absolutely no issue. All current staff members appear relatively active and seem to be performing their duties as they should be. It remains to be seen if this will hold, but for now, everyone's on the gravy train.
Short section, but I really didn't have anything important to say in this section. Everything I wanted to cover has been covered. So this is just a final little breath of air before the conclusion. Speaking of which, let's get to that and finally wrap this review up, shall we?
Total Score - (46 out of 100)
Personal Grade: D+
Final Remarks:
My scoring of Promotion Box, and indeed, even my personal grade may seem a bit intimidating. But really, there's nothing inherently wrong with this forum. In the end, it's your standard generic promotion forum that offers standard services and is yet another outlet for the promotion community to further advertise their websites. For most individuals, that's probably all they really want, therefore, Promotion Box may very well be fine just as it is.
In the end, however, Promotion Box simply has quite a few glaring flaws that serve to degrade its overall quality which are further accentuated by a complete lack of unique content and general service and content quality. There's a clear lacking in innovation here, and while the statistics may be pretty solid, Promotion Box simply doesn't manage to step out of Forum Promotion's shadow and offer its users a unique "Promotion Box" experience. It feels more like a bare-minimum Forum Promotion experience. And as I've mentioned, for many users, that's probably A-Okay. I simply find myself highly disappointed.
Nonetheless, I do hope to see the several flaws that Promotion Box currently suffers from ironed out in the days to come from its newfound revival. It would be even better if it managed to step up to the plate and find its own unique path to walk that separates itself from all the other generic promotion clones out there. So, I give you my best regards, Promotion Box. Whatever path you walk, whatever road you travel, I wish you the very best of luck.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
- - Little More Than An FP Clone
- Service Quality Is Lacking
- Cluttered Unappetizing Layout
- Several Design Hiccups
- Flaws Are A Bit Too Pronounced
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